It's as we never said goodbye
by Merlyn Britainnicus
Summary: Supernatural! Angst! Poetry! Drama! Yes, you will find NONE of them in this story. Tells my version of how Lily and James started to hate each other, then how they fell in love. Not going to be sappy at all! If I do, somebody shoot me!
1. In the beginning

_Alright, this is my first fanfic in a long time, but I would appreciate any constructive comments. I know that James/Lily love/hate fics have been done over and over and I have enjoyed reading most of them. In fact, that is the way I like to think that's how they got together. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it! Merlyn_

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except anything you do not recognize.

Chapter 1:

Prologue:

_Living in the non-magical world at the age of ten was alright for Lily Evans, she got up, went to a perfectly normal school, did her homework like a normal boy or girl, well maybe because she did her homework the moment she got home made her different. She loved her parents as any child would, and had her normal squabbles with her sister, Petunia. You could say that Lily Evans was a perfectly normal ten year old girl, until that one day she would never forget._

It was a wet and windy spring day in East London, but it was April 4 and that was all that mattered to one Lily Evans. She woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs, her favourite breakfast which meant today was...

"MY BIRTHDAY!" Lily shouted, "I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY!"

John and Anne Evans (Lily's parents) rolled their eyes and made some mention to each other of wishing that they had Lily's energy. John was in the kitchen cooking up Lily's breakfast, and Anne was sorting out the presents that Lily received from her family, none from her friends. Lily wasn't a loner in any person's view, she was liked by everyone as a kind person, but she preferred the solitude of her own company. Around 10 in the morning, Petunia stumbled down the stairs. She ate her breakfast in silence, and sang "Happy Birthday" to Lily softly and watched her sister open her presents one by one, who was sitting cross-legged in front of her family's fireplace. Petunia was two years older than Lily and was unhappy at that she would have to leave her old school for a new one. John and Anne understood this and let her be; nearing the end of gift-presentation there was a sharp knock on the door. Petunia jumped up and ran to the door, anything to get out of there, but when she opened the door no one was there. She looked left, right and across the street but no one was there. A soft hoot got her attention and when she looked down...

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! MUM, DAD, COME QUICK! THERE'S AN OWL AT THE DOOR!" Petunia cried.

"Really Petunia I thought you were more mature than that" Anne said at Petunia's rapidly retreating form. "To make up stories an owl was here...ow" meanwhile the owl, getting impatient had pecked her softly on the leg and stuck out its own. Anne was getting confused why an owl was in her foyer with its leg stuck out. The owl, having enough of this nonsense, ripped off the letter from its foot, dropped it in front of Lily who was still sitting cross-legged in the living room, and flew out the door.

Finally, recovering from the shock, Lily picked up the letter and to her surprise it was addressed to her.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Warlock_

_ Mugwump Member, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Lily Elizabeth Evans_

_1402 Rosemary Drive_

_East London, England_

As she opened it, it read

_Dear Ms. Evans,_

_No doubt you are feeling quite overwhelmed at the moment, but rest assured it is for a good reason. You have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as you come from a muggle, or a non-magical, family enclosed is the address of a pub called the Leaky Cauldron. Once inside, please ask the Bartender Tom how to get inside Diagon Alley and get a free tour, also enclosed is a list of necessary equipment. Once again, congratulations are in order due to your acceptance and we will see you September 1 at King Cross Station Platform 9 and ¾, your ticket is enclosed._

_Sincerely,_

_Prof. McGonagall Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts_

Lily fainted........

When Lily came to, her parents were bent over her with concern written all over their faces. When they realized she had woken up, John picked her up and placed her on the couch where she could catch her breath. "Owww" Lily moaned, "My head"

"I am not surprised," said her mother, "you took a nasty tumble down. You ok Hon?"

"Yeah," replied Lily, "I had the weirdest dream; I dreamt that I got a letter from some magic school claiming that I was a witch... luckily for me that was all a dream"

Her dad exchanged glances with her mom, then turned to Lily and said "It wasn't"

Lily fainted again (Don't worry, she doesn't faint againï)

Once Lily got over her dizziness, she had a long talk with her parents. Discussing the pros and cons with her parents, for an eleven year old Lily was a very mature person, or so she liked to think. After two days of discussion her parents finally relented to her going. That same day her mother took her to the pub located on her map, although there was no pub. There was a record shop on one side and a bookstore on the other.

"I thought the pub was supposed to be here..." Lily's mom mumbled to herself, then started to ask around, "Excuse me, do you know where I can find a pub called the Leaky Cauldron?"

Everyone stared at her; someone even said "Do I look that stupid miss?"

Although Lily saw the entrance and was trying to get her attention, tugging on her sleeve. "Stop it Lily," her mother said annoyingly as she was asking any passersby. Not noticing her daughter, it seemed hopeless until a woman came by with her young son.

"Come on mom, why do we have do go this way? Why couldn't we floo?" The son asked.

"Because you and Sirius blew up the fireplace remember?" His mom replied curtly, "I wish you would stay away from him, his family is quite....." his mother seemed to be looking for the right word, "harsh on muggles."

"Oh yeah..." the son began laughing again, "but mum, he's not like his family, he's different, you'll see."

Mischievous looking, with untamed black hair and dark brown eyes, and although it didn't dawn on her then but this was her first encounter with James Potter. When Lily's mom asked the mom if she knew about the Leaky Cauldron, she looked at her with disbelief. "You are right outside it," then realization dawned on her, "oh, you must be muggles." When Lily's mom looked even more confused, the woman explained, "non-magical folk, you cannot see some of the magical world. Although your daughter must have seen it?"

"Did you see it Lily?" her mother asked

"Yes mother, that's what I..." Lily replied

"Then you should have told me and stopped me looking like an idiot in front of all those people" her mother interrupted.

The son was trying hard not to giggle at the girl's misfortune. His mother suddenly realized that she hadn't introduced herself and suddenly decided that this was the perfect time for introductions. "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself, I am Beverly Potter but you can call me Bev. And this is my son James, he is starting his first year at Hogwarts."

"My name is Anne Evans, and this is Lily. She is also starting her first year at H... whatever that school is" she replied

"Hogwarts mum" Lily added.

The Potters led the Evans' into the pub with the usual hello from Tom, the new manager of the Leaky Cauldron. They sat down at an empty table to bring the two up to speed on the magical world.

"Being muggles, you probably haven't heard of our system of money where we use knuts, sickles, and galleons instead of pennies and pounds. There are 29 knuts to a sickle, 17 sickles to a galleon, I think the current exchange rate at Gringotts is....."

"Gringotts?" Mrs. Evans asked

"Our wizard bank, they are very safe. Run by Goblins and they always find sneaky ways to earn money, very secretive. The exchange rate is around 2 pounds to a Galleon, they always higher the exchange rate when Hogwarts is about to start. When you enter the bank, just mention my name and they should give you a better rate. I will go there directly and inform them, you tour Diagon Alley for Lily's materials. I need to get some galleons for James' materials anyways."

"Thank you very much," Mrs. Evans replied amazed at this act of kindness from a stranger, "you really don't have to."

"My pleasure," Mrs. Potter replied with a smirk which looked the same as her son's, "anything to get the Goblins annoyed. Well, shall we enter Diagon Alley?"

They all stood up from the table, Mrs. Potter led all of them through the back door, where they stood in front of a wall. Mrs. Potter took out her wand and tapped the wall in random places, to the Evans's amazement, the wall formed an archway into a street. Not any normal street but one filled with people dressed in robes, with signs that read 'Powdered Dragon's claw, 12 sickles an ounce,' 'Comet 140, fastest broom to date!' and 'Clearance Sale on all charm books!' The sight drew a silent awe from the Evans's, and everything was going along perfectly. However.....

James decided his prolonged silence wasn't good for him and decided to speak up, he began to talk to Lily, "I like your eyes"

"Thanks"

"The green is like.... as green as a fresh pickled toad" James said sincerely (well, as sincerely as an 11 year old could), but he hadn't taken in account that Lily was a muggle-born and didn't realize that his comment could be taken as an insult. As fresh pickled toads were highly regarded as loyal pets (I know it's not true now, but they could have been back in the day ;) ). Lily immediately buried her face in her hands and ran away, followed closely by her mother who was shouting apologies at Mrs. Potter.

"What did you say to that girl James?" James's mother asked him

"All I said was her eyes look as green as a flesh pickled toad... I don't know what she thinks I meant... ow mum!" James said as he was smacked on the back of the head. "What did you do that for?"

"Do you get it James? She is a muggle-born, she thinks that you think that her eyes look like frogs! Sometimes you can be so stupid, must take after your father! Now come on we have to get your stuff." And with that she hurried off to Gringotts dragging James behind her.

Lily eventually stopped crying and explained to her mother why she ran away, "that cruel boy, his mother should be ashamed of him. Come on Lily, we might as well finish up our shopping, let's go to Gringotts."

Luckily, Lily's shopping experience was very pleasant and her mother treated her to a set of Charm books. As Mr. Ollivander said that her 10 and a quarter long wand was a "nice wand for charm work." Lily picked up her new robes and materials for her classes, she couldn't wait until September 1st.

James on the other hand had an unpleasant trip into Diagon Alley, his mother was angry at him for driving away what could have been her new friend. James's mum was always fascinated with muggles and thought of them with loads of respect, her husband also thought of muggles as amazing people. However, as purebloods, this attitude was secretly gossiped about but the Potters were always the odd family out.

As nothing could be his fault, James blamed the bad experience on Lily and was plotting revenge on her once his mum could do nothing to him at Hogwarts. His mother did however treat him to a book about animagi, as he found interest in turning into an animal. As his mother thought he wasn't bright enough to become one at the time, she decided to buy it for him.

Exhausted from shopping, both James and Lily went to sleep quickly. Preparing for the week's trip to Hogwarts, while their parents began coping that they wouldn't see their son or daughter for almost a year.

_Well, that's it for now. Would like some reviews on the chapter, hopefully 10 before I post the next chapter. I have an idea of where this fanfic should go but I wouldn't mind other ideas. I will try to post a chapter a week, but attending university may halt the story once in a while but I promise not to neglect it too often. I will post on average a chapter of at least 2000 words, I consider it an unworthy chapter if it goes under. Thanks for reading the story, now all you have to do is come back whenever I post and review my chapters ï_


	2. Boy meets girl, girl hates boy

_Author's Note: Wow! I didn't expect such fast replies to my posting of the story. 3 within a day, and that was just the beginning, not many readers read small stories but wait until they become longer. So I am hoping to get more readers as the story progresses, but thanks to the first people who read and posted, Aiki-Tenshi, plum jam and Wind Whisperer...If you have any questions don't hesitant to ask, just e-mail me through fanfiction._

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING! Unless you don't recognize it, then it's mine, ALL MINE! Sorry, little self-possessive there.... won't happen again

THE NEXT WEEK

"James, we're going to be late! Get your butt down here and eat some breakfast!" Mrs. Potter shouted up to James's room.

James came running down the steps as quickly as he could, his robes half on and his hair messed up. James had long since tried to calm his hair down, it just took too much effort. James ate a couple pieces of toast, lugged his trunk down the stairs until his father stopped his progress and loaded the trunk himself before James could do too much damage to it. "Dad! Are you coming to the station?" James asked hopefully.

"Sorry son, there is just too much work to do at the ministry," James's face fell but his father, distracted by a letter he was reading, did not see it. "You have a good year, I will see you next year."

James was dropped off at the station, angrily he made his way to the barrier without a good bye to his mum. Knowing how angry James was, his mother didn't pursue him. She knew that eventually he would calm down and be his usual normal self, she just worried about whoever would draw James's anger.

"Oi James!" James turned around but was tackled down by a blur of black hair and tanned skin.

"Sirius, get off me! We are going to go to school with these people, we got to think of our reputations. Now we have to think of a way to gain popularity with the others," James was thinking hard about ways, Sirius was joking around.

"Blowing up a toilet?" Sirius said

"No"

"Kicking a teacher in the butt?"

"No"

"I heard Dumbledore is headmaster there now that Old man Dippet retired, how about we pull a prank on him?"

James was about to say no, but a flash of red hair walked by him.... "how about we pull a prank on a fellow student?"

"Cool! That would definitely gain popularity points, who should we prank?" Sirius asked

"I have someone in mind" James began to grin, although not a happy grin but one tainted with the thought of misbehaving on it. "Come with me Sirius, we have some planning to do."

Lily had just said a tearful goodbye to her parents, as Lily entered through the barrier as instructed by her paper that she received from Hogwarts the day before. She went directly to the luggage department and gave her trunk to the conductor, and then she went into an empty compartment. She sat down and buried herself into one of her charm books, she was fascinated by all the different charms you could place on someone. She was looking forward to Charm class the most.

"Mind if I sit here?" Lily was so absorbed in her book she hadn't noticed a young girl opening the door. Lily shrugged and motioned her to sit down across from her.

"Do you have a name or are you mute?" the girl asked

"Lily Evans," Lily decided that talking might be better than getting on someone's nerves even before term started. "What's yours?"

"Hestia Jones, but most people just call me Hes, I'm named after my dad's favourite quidditch player Hestia Locklear." She replied

"What's quidditch?" Lily asked

Hestia looked like she has just seen a ghost, her face blanched but as realization dawned on her she asked a simple question, "are you a muggle-born?"

"I guess so, that means non-magic parents right?"

"Yep, well, let me tell you about quidditch" and she did, for one seemingly long hour she went through the rules, basic playing strategies, the quidditch league and the positions.

"......... and that's all you need to know about quidditch. I wonder when the snack lady is coming by?" Hestia began to speak until their compartment door opened but no one was there. Lily and Hestia began to get up when a ball was rolled in and stopped them in their tracks. "Hey, I remember seeing those in the joke shop at Diagon Alley, those are dungbombs...." Hestia trailed off at the realization that there was a dungbomb in their room.

"RUN!" Lily yelled but too late as the bomb exploded, covering them in the stench of manure. They ran out trying to find a washroom to wash off the smell but crashed into two boys laughing their heads off. Lily recognized one of them, "YOU!" she said pointing at the boy she met in Diagon Alley that insulted her.

"Me," James replied with a smirk, "I do have a name you know"

"Hey James, you never told me you knew one of these girls," Sirius laughed

"Unfortunately we had a run in at Diagon Alley, and she got my mum all mad at me..." James said scowling.

"So it's MY fault that you insulted me and that I ran away because of it? And your mum got mad at you because of what? The fact that your insult hurt me caused your mum to be mad at you!?" Lily shouted angrily.

"Yes it is, and if you could look past your carrot coloured (_I am Canadian, explaining the Canadian way of spelling_) hair you might realize that!"

Lily blanched and ran away, Hestia unsure of what to do, decided to chase after her. "Why did she do that?" Sirius asked.

"You know mate, some girls are just touchy about their hair," James said

"I can see you aren't touchy about your hair," Sirius commented on James's messy hair sticking in different directions.

James ran a hand through his hair trying to settle it down, but he knew it was a lost cause. So James just decided to get some revenge, "I see you care too much about your hair Sirius, do you use shampoo or conditioner?" He asked with false sincerity, but behind his back James slowly drew his wand, without Sirius knowing.

"Shut up you git, if you must know I use both. It works, my hair is so smooth and soft." Sirius said. He gazed into the window to use it's reflection to see if any parts were out of place. But he only saw James behind him with a grin on his face. Whirling around he looked at James's face and then his hand, which was clutching his wand. "Umm.... James? What are you doing with that wand?" Sirius started to edge his hand to his wand, knowing that it was a futile effort but he had to try.

"Just wondering how you would like it if your hair turned an unnatural shade of yellow?" James said.

"You wouldn't," Sirius said, with a look of fear on his face, "would you?"

Sirius soon found out the answer to that question as James muttered a couple of words, did a weird flick of his wand and ran from the room. Sirius looked in the window and saw his hair was no longer a handsome raven black but a bright canary yellow. Screaming bloody murder, Sirius ran from the room after James who had a good head start on him.

James had ducked into a nearby compartment with, luckily, only one occupant who was as young as he. Deciding to make a better impression than someone who jumped into a compartment gasping for breath.

"Hi, my name is James Potter," James said once he caught his breath, "I am going into first year at Hogwarts hopefully Gryffindor, unless my friend Sirius Black catches me and kills me for what I did to his hair."

"Remus Lupin, first year, also would like to get into Gryffindor" the boy said quietly, although he raised his eyebrow at the other statement, "what did you do to his hair?"

"You can look for yourself," James said pointing at the compartment door which had just opened with Sirius standing there with a look of fury on his face. It was hard to take anyone seriously with hair that looked like an experiment gone wrong, Remus burst out laughing.

"JAMES! What did you do to my hair?" Sirius asked angrily

"Just a little charm I picked up in one of our books for school, I tried them out on my owl first before I could perfect it. It took a while to find the counter-charm to the jinx, mum wasn't pleased when she found out. Got grounded for a week, but I started to look through our school books. Transfiguration sounds cool, what class are you looking forward to Remus?" James asked

"What? I don't get asked the question?" Sirius looked indigent, which his hair made him look comical and Remus and James burst out laughing again. James did the counter-charm so they could look at Sirius without bursting out in laughter.

"Sorry Sirius, what class are you looking forward to?" James said, still wiping a few tears of laughter away.

"Well, I am looking forward to Astronomy," Sirius said, "where else can you think of where you get a great chance at a romantic moment with a girl?"

"Typical Sirius," James said while rolling his eyes, "mind in the gutter, what about you Remus?"

"I think Defence against the Dark Arts sounds like a good subject, I mean with all those people disappearing for no reason makes me think that I should try to learn how to defend myself. No point going out in the world with no way of protecting ourselves."

"Wow, that's deep Remus," James said seriously, before his face turned into a big grin, "too serious for us to think about, I mean we are 11 year olds. Who would want to hurt us?"

The boys started joking around, and were surprised to find out that they had a lot in common with Remus and they quickly began a strong friendship with him.

Unknown to James, there was someone who wanted to hurt James. Well, hurt would be a mild term, someone wanted to kill James. Her name was Lily Evans, twice she had been insulted by him and had to suffer the humiliation of running down the corridor of the train with everyone plugging their noses to protect the smell from tainting their noses. Once Lily and Hestia got cleaned up, they walked down the corridor trying to put as much distance between them and the boys. They happened to chance upon a compartment that also held just one occupant, a girl who was more content to be watching the scenery out the window than the two people who had just walked in.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" Lily asked the girl, who just shrugged and turned back to the window. Lily and Hestia decided that this meant yes and started to settle in, trying to break the awkward silence Lily tried to start a conversation. "I'm Lily Evans and this is Hestia Jones, we are going into our first year at the school. What's your name?"

"Emmeline Vance, most people just call me Emma though. I am entering first year as well," she said unenthusiastically.

"What house are you hoping to get into? I think from what I have heard that I would want to be in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor." Lily tried to keep the conversation going

"Don't really care, I suppose Gryffindor or Ravenclaw would be ok. My dad was in Ravenclaw and my mum was in Gryffindor, so I suppose I would be in one of those houses." Emma sounded unenthusiastically at first, but once she realized that these girls would like to know her. Emma started to tell the story of how she got her letter, her family's response, and what expectations her parents expected her to live up to. Her mother was Head Girl and her dad was the Captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, her parents had high expectations for her and she was nervous about what would happen if she didn't live up to them.

Each respective group spent the remaining time talking amongst each other and beginning to make new friends, as they were talking though, a Prefect had come by to tell them to change into their robes. They were approaching Hogwarts and they needed to get ready, Sirius and James had the newest robes available while Remus's looked a bit shabby. Sirius and James offered to lend Remus some of theirs but Remus wasn't happy about this display of pity and told them 'if I want robes, I would buy them! These are my dad's and I wouldn't wear anything else." Sirius and James soon shut up about the robes, which pleased Remus as he was lying. His parents weren't the richest people around and couldn't afford any new robes for Remus to attend Hogwarts in.

The girls all had their new robes on and just as they finished the train stopped, everyone got off and there was a huge man, at least 9 feet tall, maybe 10, he bellowed, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

Once all the first years were gathered around, the man began to speak again. "A'right, I'm Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Any problems with the forest, come see me at me house."

With that, he began the march up to the lake surrounding the castle. Assigned a boat for each group of four and started the quiet boat trip up to the entrance and the two huge front doors. With a giant fist, Hagrid pounded on the doors and waited. Soon after the knock, the doors opened and a middle-aged woman stood there eyeing the students in front of her.

"The firs' years Professor McGonagall," Hagrid said, bowing to her.

"Thank you Hagrid, children, follow me please." McGonagall said

She led them up three staircases and in front of two highly decorated doors, "wait here, I will be back for you shortly."

UP NEXT: THE SORTING!

(_Authors Note: While re-reading Goblet of Fire, I noticed that Mrs. Weasley makes reference to a caretaker named Ogg and I was wondering if he would have been the Caretaker when Lily and James were at school. I did some calculations; in Harry's second year was the 50th anniversary of the Chamber of Secrets attacks. Hagrid was in his third year when it happened, meaning he was 13 at the time. So in the present, after Harry's fifth year, Hagrid must be around 65 years old. So when Harry was born, Hagrid was 50 years old, figuring that Lily and James had Harry around the age of 24-25, so when Lily and James were in their first year, Hagrid must have been 36 years old. So I effectively ruled out that the caretaker was Ogg during Lily and James's time at Hogwarts. However, this proves that Mrs Weasley must be at least 10 years older than Lily and James. This should come in effect in later chapters. Sorry if I bored everyone by writing this long noteï, next chapter should be shorter than these, will just contain the sorting. So next chapter should be up sooner, depending on University)_

_(Authors Note: Oh yeah, I can't write Hagrid's accent all the time, too complicated. So I will just improvise, please pardon any bad improvisation and just concentrate on the good ;) )_


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